Mantis 20 (Spring 2022)
Translations
Marina Tsvetaeva
translated from the Russian by Josie Brody
Мне нравится, что вы больны не мной
Мне нравится, что вы больны не мной,
Мне нравится, что я больна не вами,
Что никогда тяжелый шар земной
Не уплывет под нашими ногами.
Мне нравится, что можно быть смешной -
Распущенной - и не играть словами,
И не краснеть удушливой волной,
Слегка соприкоснувшись рукавами.
Мне нравится еще, что вы при мне
Спокойно обнимаете другую,
Не прочите мне в адовом огне
Гореть за то, что я не вас целую.
Что имя нежное мое, мой нежный, не
Упоминаете ни днем, ни ночью - всуе...
Что никогда в церковной тишине
Не пропоют над нами: аллилуйя!
Спасибо вам и сердцем и рукой
За то, что вы меня - не зная сами! -
Так любите: за мой ночной покой,
За редкость встреч закатными часами,
За наши не-гулянья под луной,
За солнце, не у нас над головами,-
За то, что вы больны - увы! - не мной,
За то, что я больна - увы! - не вами!
I like that I’m not sick with love for you
I like that I’m not sick with love for you,
I like that you’re not sick with love for me,
And that this globe of heavy earth stays true,
And we don’t float on heady love’s blue sea.
I like that I can laugh or scream or sing
With you, without the fear of losing charm,
And not be smothered with a wave of blushing,
Because your sleeve so lightly kissed my arm.
I like that in my presence, you can be
So calm in your embraces of another,
That you don’t wish on me the flames of hell
Because I steal a kiss from some new lover.
And that your nightly mantras never take
My tender name, in vain, my tender dear...
That you will never stand for my love’s sake
Before a priest and pledge your farthest year.
I thank you, heart and soul, for the sweet gift
Of such a love (and you don’t even know!)
For how, unmoored from you, my mind can drift,
For how we rarely meet in sunset’s glow,
For all the moons you weren’t here to see,
And skies which in your absence remained blue,
For your not being sick, alas, for me,
For my not being sick, alas, for you.
MARINA IVANOVNA TSVETAEVA (1892-1941) was a Russian lyric poet, and a major part of the highly influential movement known in Russia as the Silver Age of poetry. One of the first women to be accepted as a great Russian poet, Tsvetaeva can also be considered one of the first known queer poets in the Russian tradition, for her cycle of poems to her lover Sophia Parnok. Following the Russian Revolution, she and her family left Russia in 1922 to live in poverty
in Berlin, Prague and Paris, before returning to the Soviet Union in 1939. Under the terror of the Stalinist regime, her husband Sergei Efron was executed on charges of espionage in 1941; Tsvetaeva hanged herself in August of that year.
JOSIE BRODY is a senior at Stanford University studying Comparative Literature, with minors in Slavic Language and Literature and Creative Writing. She is currently writing a thesis about the work of Anna Akhmatova, has had her work published in Nassau Literary Review, and was the winner of Stanford Poetry out Loud in 2019.